Committees Serving Berisha's Game

Once the agreement to hold elections on 29 June, or around that time,
was made, in his few contacts with representatives of international
community, Berisha began to play the game of the danger posed by the
citizens' committees that were set up in the south of the country.

It is a well-known fact that the said committees were set up at the
time when even the slightest trace of local authority had vanished
completely. The people who undertook to set up and participate in
these committees were prompted by their good will not to let the
situation get worse and to prevent further tragic outcomes.

However, these committees could not fail to express the voice of the
large number of people who had lost their savings in the failure of
the pyramid schemes.

These people had been the main participants in these revolts, and,
therefore, their crucial demand would surely be for Berisha's
resignation. This accounted for the tension that was created between
Berisha and the committees.

However, the calmer the situation, the more remote became the
possibility for Berisha's resignation prior to elections. Under
these conditions, although the committees have somewhat toned down
their demands for Berisha's resignation, on his part, Berisha has
never relented his attacks against the committees.

Berisha and his followers continue to complain that “Elections
are jeopardized by the committees' existence,” that
“rightist parties cannot conduct electoral campaigns in the
South,” that “the rightist press cannot go there,”
and so on.

The truth is that only Berisha and his party, and not the rightist
parties, cannot go to the south to conduct their electoral campaign;
and that only Berisha's newspaper, which has consistently insulted
the protesters in several cities in the south, cannot be read or
distributed there.

On the other hand, the committees themselves have not prevented
anyone, either left or right, from going to the south. King Leka
Zog's visit to Vlore and other southern cities is the best
refutation of Berisha's allegation.

Being in a fix, Berisha prefers to speak from the right-wing position
when it is a fact that rightists do not need any such advocate.
Berisha is justifying his failure to go to the south with the
committees' presence, but no one knows whether Berisha will go to
the south in the event of the committees being dissolved.

It is hard to find an optimist who even envisions Berisha going to
meet the people of Vlore or those of some other southern city. It is
a fact of life that Berisha has not left Tirana since the end of
February, even to give heart to his two bastions in the other
two-thirds of the country.

Thus the committees are unintentionally serving Berisha to justify his
thesis that elections cannot be held in the near future. It might
happen that the committees may declare their dissolution or lay down
their weapons (although there are no records to prove how many arms
were taken) and then they would say to Berisha: “Here you are,
come if you wish!”

However, knowing that Berisha cannot go to the south even if there are
no committees, nobody can tell what pretext he will find instead of
the committees.